Commissioners tackle variety of issues at meeting

The Hot Springs County Commissioners held their second meeting for March on Tuesday evening, approving a resolution for the solar eclipse in August, awarding a bid for concrete work at the new airport and discussing insulation issues in the multi-purpose building at the fairgrounds before hearing an update from New ERA Petroleum.

The commissioners approved a resolution addressing land uses, a temporary easing of some aspects, from August 15, 2017 to August 31, 2017, to allow short-term rentals of certain areas during the week leading up to and the week after the solar eclipse.

The temporary land uses will allow residents to rent out their homes, apartments, guest houses, bedrooms and similar residential units.

It will also allow for the short-term rental of RVs and RV sites for self contained units. Overflow areas for existing tent or RV campgrounds will be allowed as long as access to toilet facilities are provided or RVs are self contained.

The full resolution and what it covers is available in the county planner’s office for those who may have any questions as to what they can and cannot allow on their property for the two week period.

Scott Miller was awarded the bid for a concrete pad to be poured at the new airport.

Miller’s bid was $5,650 for 6” of compacted road base topped with 6” of reinforced concrete, a better product than was suggested by Engineering Associates who created the initial bid. Miller also came in well under the projected budget for the project.

An ongoing issue with sagging and falling insulation in the multi-purpose building at the fairgrounds was discussed with Wade Lippincott, owner of Atlas Roofing, the company that replaced the roof and installed the insulation nearly three years ago.

Condensation has been gathering in the insulation causing it to sag and some sections to fall, creating a safety hazard in the building.

Lippincott said after taking some of the insulation down and inspecting the area between the insulation and the roof, he believes a majority of the problem is due to no air circulation in the building, allowing the condensation to gather in large amounts, creating the sagging.

Commissioner Tom Ryan disagreed, saying he has seen a state owned building of similar size that houses a fish hatchery and saw no issues there like those happening in the multi-purpose building.

Lippincott said he was not aware of the large amount of moisture that gathers in the building, but believes the issue goes beyond just the insulation, that there may be issues with the building itself as he’s never seen the massive amounts of water that gather between the roof and the insulation.

It was finally agreed by both parties that the roof and insulation would be inspected by an expert and then a work session would be held to decide where to go from there.

Lippincott said he stands behind the work his company does and will be happy to work with the commissioners to find a solution.

In order to dispel rumors that have been going around about the viability of his company, New ERA Petroleum, John Hoak came in to talk with the commissioners about the future of the Western Warm Springs oil field.

Hoak described the cutting edge technology his company uses, mining below the oil reservoir before drilling into it from below to extract the oil left behind from conventional drilling.

While they haven’t achieved commercial success with the project, Hoak said he has been forced to cut costs, meaning he has gone from 75 employees to just nine, creating the rumor that the company is going under.

Hoak assured the commissioners he is doing everything he can to increase revenue and the flooding they are doing at the field right now is starting to show promise even though it may be another year before they see real success.

As he is working to make the company whole, Hoak said they are not planning on filing for bankruptcy and he absolutely refuses to give up on the project.