Commissioners deal with full agenda

During the Hot Springs County Commissioners May 18 meeting, County Assessor Dan Webber presented the 2021 Abstract for the Board of Equalization. The commissioners recessed their meeting and called to order their Board of Equalization hearing to listen to Webber. He explained the abstract assessment amount was for $2,269,947. The Board of Equalization passed to approve it. Later they adjourned and went back to holding their commissioners meeting from then on. 

Webber also presented a memorandum of understanding for the Department of Revenue for some computer hardware. The state was paying for the hardware and are giving it to the county. Webber said their computers were failing every week and they needed new equipment. The commissioners voted and passed to accept the items.

There was also some discussion about GIS and the previous meeting with T-O Engineers. There was a need for clarification if someone was taking over Cody Stewart’s spot while she was out on maternity leave. Chairman Tom Ryan explained there was a push this year to move the GIS systems into other departments where they will work to train people in those offices. Each department would have their own GIS person working on the systems for their specific needs. Stewart will come back and continue her work on GIS for the Assessor’s office and can help other departments. Ryan added the question, “But where do we go from here?” regarding GIS. The system has a lot of possibilities and uses for each different county department.

Brad Johnson presented the county’s insurance review renewal. He explained that their insurance is partial self funded and that the county is 100% responsible because the county is the insurance company. Johnson gave many numerical details about the past year and also gave a Covid report where 13 people were tested and five were confirmed Covid cases. He said that the costs are changing and going up. He also noted that the greatest expense for their insurance comes from pharmacy prescriptions. While many are cheap because of generic uses of medications, there were 46 different scripts filled that cost about $11,000. The generics total was $3,140. This issue of speciality prescription is driving the plan’s costs up.

Johnson also mentioned the service of Tele-Health and that there were only seven visits the past year to date. If patients use tele-health, it is a major cost saver versus getting an appointment and seeing a doctor in person. 

The current budget for their insurance plan is $802,000 and with the renewal, it will increase to $871,000. Johnson presented a variety of plan carrier options and recommended they continue with the same carrier they had last year which is Companion Life. 

The commissioners passed a motion to continue with Companion Life. They also passed a motion to appoint an administrator for the policy, which is County Clerk Rose DeSyn. Johnson also said that his contract as the county’s consultant ends on June 30 and that he asked if they would consider renewing his contract at $6,500 per year. The commission voted and passed to renew his contract.

Lucas Anderson presented to the commissioners a property insurance quote in the possibility they change from their current carrier WARM. Anderson said the quote is not a full policy. He is from the Cody office and has been there for 14 years. The quote is about gathering information and not “tinkering with liability.” Anderson described the cost of construction has gone up exponentially as a factor. There is a $5,000 per occurrence claim, per building. Commissioner Jack Baird asked about if that was per building or per event. Anderson said he believes it’s per building but would reply again later after looking into the question. The quote was good until next July and is at $60,168 for six months.

Bill Gordon presented his Emergency Management report and said this year they will fill Boysen Reservoir until the end of June. He added there should be a nice flow that will help recreation and irrigation. Gordon said June 1 is when calls typically come in about concerns about the drought condition. However he said that long term the progress is pretty good. There are predictions that the area will be hot and dry but irrigation looks to be under control. He said Owl Creek irrigations should have a fair year.

Gordon also discussed the tested sirens alarms for both tornado and the dam failing possibilities. He did say the chances of Boysen Dam failing is extremely low and wanted to make sure the public knew that. However, in the rare case it did fail, it would cause significant devastation with downtown would be under 71 feet of water.

Shane Rankin represented a request from H Diamond W and Ray Shaffer asking to have the county blade on some roads and potentially move some logs to build a cabin. Part of the moving logs would require a haul in the Shoshoni area. The commissioners said this is not something they would necessarily do and was beyond their scope. But they agreed to give permission to Rankin and his team to blade the roads. However, the log haul would need to be done by someone else, especially since it is outside Hot Springs County. 

The commissioners voted and passed to approve the USFS Shoshone Forest Cooperative Forest Road Agreement.

There was a utility agreement presented involving Wyoming Gas where they sought to put in a gas line on the north side of Lane 12 and requested to do this inside the county’s right of way. The commissioners decided to table this issue and get clarification to see if this is the norm. They want to know the process.

The commissioners voted and passed to apply for a Pinnacle Bank Line of Credit involving the DEQ. They also voted and passed a WARM Amended and Restated Joint Powers Agreement.