Commissioners updated on several issues

At Hot Springs County Commissioners meeting on March 2, County Health Nurse Tricia McPhie gave her report saying the maternal-child health position is still open and they are starting to receive applications. The advertising they paid through the Wyoming Nursing Magazine has recently gone out. Scheduling interviews will be next once they receive more candidates.

McPhie said that the Department of Health has finally distributed numbers for the maternal-child health contract. She will present that in the next meeting with a reduced amount. 

For COVID, Moderna didn’t ship doses of vaccines during the time of the terrible national weather. McPhie said that they tripled their numbers last week. The health clinic at the fair building and received a lot of positive feedback. They were able to vaccinate quite a lot of people and received a lot of help from volunteers. McPhie anticipates a lot of help when the second doses arrive. 

At the recent clinic, 244 doses were given. Overall, 916 people have received their first shot. 499 have received their second dose. The total at the time of this meeting was 1,415 people. McPhie said her goal is to continue to vaccinate and provide them to people and get them to the public as quickly as possible. 

The commissioners then asked McPhie if they have vaccinated most of the elderly population in the county. McPhie said she didn’t know and that “we vaccinated a large number of those people but there are still people on the 70 waiting list.” From December through February they have received 1,000 first doses. Also, the Wyoming Department of Health has received 4,800 vaccines from Johnson and Johnson. Hot Springs County is allocated to receive 100 doses that week, and they are waiting for guidance on which population to focus on. 

After hearing this, the commissioners discussed submitting a letter for a County Health Variance. Chairman Ryan said, “The commissioner would like to submit health variances for all three deals and roll back all variances.” Ryan mentioned that Johnson, Weston and Niobrara Counties all submitted variances and that the State approved them with the exceptions of the schools, but Ryan said they are going to submit it as all with the school in it. 

Ryan asked for a motion to have the County Attorney draw up health variances to rescind all restrictions for Hot Springs County imposed at both the county level and state level and submit that to the County Health Officer for his signature to send onto the State. Ryan said, “We cannot tell him what to do, but he does work for us.”

The motion was seconded, and during discussion Commissioner Baird said, “My discussion is: this is long overdue.” Ryan said, “I don’t disagree.” The motion was passed with all in agreement.

Nate Messenger provided his Fixed Based Operator monthly report for the new airport and said that the month of February was better than January. There were 108 operations at the new county airport. There were four requests for a hanger due to bitter cold temperatures, one was for a doctor who flew in. This makes it easier to warm up the plane’s engine and get started. Messenger added there were 924.75 gallons of gas sold and 309.2 gallons of jet fuel. Messenger said he plans on hiring JADECO to come and put in LED light bulbs in the parking lot. 

Chairman Ryan said the commissioners want to give $2,500 to Owl Creek Aviation for their loss in fuel usage because of COVID and will submit a voucher for it. Ryan brought up the Master Plan and the recent presentation from T-O Engineers. Ryan had several conversations with Dusty Spomer who said Spomer “was not pleased with their performance on the Master Plan and he assured me they would do better.” Messenger said he was not impressed either and he read a lot of their documents and will create a list of things to change. Ryan expressed he wants the community to buy into the plan and not just check off boxes. He wants to create a discussion. 

Les Culliton gave his maintenance report and said they have completed the power pole movement. There was a discussion with Culliton and the commissioners about the construction of a carport outside the Annex building and how it should be designed. Culliton said that they should be prepared for this construction in the possibility funds become available. Chairman Ryan said he will investigate if money might be available while Culliton will start designing the structure and they will start getting bids from contractors. 

Culliton updated the commissioners on the Law Enforcement Center roof project. It is unknown whether the roof has a silver surface covering it all the way. There are many layers on it, and all of it must be stripped down to its base deck. The codes have changed and there can be no more than three layers on the roof system. They plan on getting a membrane put on the roof surface and sealing it for any potential leaks.

For the library roof, there was discussion about the drainage of water and about the possible installation of a gutter on the backside of the building. The issues were where does the water spill onto or be directed to on the ground level, or should it be subterranean. A quote of $3,900 was given by a potential contractor for the gutter. 

Regarding the 4-H Extension building, they are working with Tumbleweed Propane on a proposal to keep the two furnaces there and sleeve the chimney. They also want to replace the hot water heater with an on-demand heater. The cost of the proposal is just under $4,000. 

Culliton said he knew there was a prior discussion about the emergency button notification dispatch system and inquired about it. The commissioners confirmed they are stopping the current system. Dean Peranteaux is handling this project. 

For the Law Enforcement Center elevator, Culliton said that the wheels were inspected and needed to be replaced. During the inspection, it was discovered packing started leaking. A proposal for these issues is in the works. 

Culliton reported that the access to the Public Health building will change from using fobs to cards. Work involved would cost $1,800 to change things out and program them. Culliton said the main question is, should they use a keypad? After some discussion about security and different scenarios, it was decided they will not use a keypad. 

Shane Rankin gave his road and bridge report and said they continue doing machine maintenance in the shop. The dozer has been fixed and is back up and running and was done at the fraction of the cost than originally anticipated. They have been plowing and sanding in areas with snow and plowing shoulders in Sand Draw. 

Bo Bowman gave his Planner Monthly Report and said he has two committees, the Natural Resource Planning Committee (NRPC) and the Land Use Planning Commission (LPC) and is pleased with them, however, is looking for more membership and encourages people to apply. He said more voices help the dialogue and get people around the table. 

Bowman said the Planning Commission will be meeting this month on March 17 and will make a recommendation for a small re-subdivision on some properties. Also, the annual report will be coming out soon. 

Bowman added he is working on an airport map and making it into a booklet. He will use T-O Engineering data to do this and use it for planning purposes.

The commissioners spent some considerable time with Bowman discussing out-of-state people coming to Wyoming. There was information that most of all the potential inventory for properties has all been bought. This would lead to the possibility of subdivisions being created. Bowman said he received many inquiries from people interested in the area. He said, “People are looking to escape to an area like this and are often looking for something to do to make it work financially.”

Commissioner Philip Scheel brought up that he heard Governor Gordon is starting to build a task force to investigate geothermal uses in the state of Wyoming as part of the diversify the economy pitch. Scheel said he wants to investigate this and see if they can get someone appointed for it and be at the table representing the county. Bowman said they have to prepare for the day, or possibility that a utility company will come to town to use geothermal energy for creating heat and electricity. Bowman said in response to Scheel, “Yes, we should be involved with that.” Bowman will contact the Governor’s office to inquire.

Bill Gordon gave his Emergency Management Monthly Report and said that the statewide snowpack appears to approach normal coverage, which is not great but better than it was before. The Wind River Range is at about 80% coverage but is a little lagging. He said they are hoping for the best and will wait and see if there is going to be trouble. Gordon added that Boysen is high and is at about 70% capacity and should be more by the end of April. 

Commissioner Scheel brought up the discussions of potential irrigation water restrictions and the potential problems of a low-water season. Commission Jack Baird said that hopefully we will get snow in April and May or else we would be in trouble, but then commented he doesn’t think there should be an issue. Gordon said in response that the snow in the Wind Rivers will come down to Boysen and will have more water in it by the time the irrigation season starts.

Gordon added to his report about how everyone was affected by COVID, both residents and town and county employees. He said everyone stepped up. He praised everyone’s efforts and resilience. Gordon mentioned Anthony Marcel the county’s webmaster and how integral his work has been in keeping things communicated, updated and running smoothly.

Lindsey Woodward came to the commissioners to request a second mill for mosquito control for the county. She explained there are three parts to their program in dealing with mosquitos. One is trapping where they set up about 20 traps through the county and monitor them at least every other day. They then find out what types of adult species they have. This is also part of the monitoring of potential West Niles virus being spread around.  

The second part of the program is larvae harvesting, which is the most labor-intensive part of the program. All summer long crews go around to every standing water body they have permission to access and test for larvae in the water. Depending upon what they find, how many or how aged the insect is, they treat the water accordingly. 

The third part of the program is the aerial application which is done once or twice in the summer. They treat about 38,000 acres. 

The program applies for a grant every year that amounts to $3,500. The commissioners voted and passed a motion for a second mill for mosquito control.

The commissioners then moved onto the subject of the Wyoming Senior Home Services Support. Trenda Moore is the Center’s Director and is looking for support where $70,000 of funding might be gone from the state. If that cut happens, more than half of the 77 current clients will be looking at nursing home placement almost immediately. For most people, they serve seniors where private care is totally unaffordable. To continue this program independently, the center will have to fundraise and procure roughly $50,000 in additional monies. The commissioners all signed a letter in support of the Senior Center to send to Representative John Winter and Senator Ed Cooper. 

Barb Rice gave her Youth Alternative monthly report and presented her counts of different youths participating in her program and those who were released. Rice also announced a new program she is starting to help those students, not in school but needs to focus on learning. She is now available from 11 a.m. until 3 p.m. Tuesday thru Thursday where kids agree to spend time free writing for 15 minutes and reading books for 30 minutes.

They also will do a civic assignment such as reading articles and or learning about current events.

As they participate in the program, they will have a journal portfolio with pictures and writing to show their growth as they return to school. Currently, Rice has two kids participating. Rice said that kids are reading and writing for these amounts of time every day they are really moving themselves along.