GOSHEN COUNTY – The Goshen County Commissioners met for the regularly scheduled meeting at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, November 19 in the commissioners’ chambers of the courthouse. Present at the meeting were chairman Michael McNamee, vice chairman, Justin Burkart, commissioner Aaron Walsh and Mary Feagler, county clerk. 

The meeting began with the Pledge of Allegiance and a short welcome to visitors followed by McNamee’s opening comments. 

McNamee also noted there were revisions made on the meeting’s agenda for the day, noting there would be a road and bridge report containing information on the Yoder plat and a resolution pertaining to Dillman Estates. McNamee also added the fire warden’s report to the agenda for the purpose of discussing the county-wide fire ban. Feagler noted Leticia Dominguez, county treasurer, was absent from the meeting so she emailed her report. 

A motion was made to approve the changes to the agenda by Burkart and seconded by Walsh. The new agenda was approved. The minutes from the previous meeting were also approved.

“A couple of comments before we get into the agenda here this morning. First of all, as we move toward Thanksgiving here, an opportunity for us to mention some things that I think are probably very important. From our position here, we want to make sure that each and every one of our employees that work for Goshen County understand that we are thankful for the job that they do,” McNamee said. “We are blessed to live in a wonderful area and that there are a lot of very positive things about being residents of Goshen County.” 

McNamee went on to congratulate area high schools on recent achievements. 

“I also wanted to mention, I guess I kind of have a soft spot in my heart for the youth of our area and I would like to congratulate not only all the area volleyball teams that did well at the state tournament, the Lingle football team, state runners up for the 1A nine-man. Always positive things I like to share about things going on in the county,” McNamee said.

Moving into the departmental reports, there was no clerk of court report listed on the agenda so the commissioners quickly moved on to accepting the report of the Goshen County Sheriff’s report. 

Sheriff Kory Fleenor spoke to the commission, noting contact housing for the county was $18,270 for the month and $94,782 for the year.

“Some of that went up because we (the detention center) took on some state inmates, so we housed 12-16 on a pretty limited short-term bases so they are paying us,” Fleenor said. “I have one person starting in detention tomorrow and one person graduating the academy with peace officer basic Thursday.”

A motion was made by Burkart to accept the sheriff’s report, which was quickly seconded by Walsh. The commission approved the report and moved on to the road and bridge report. Feagler noted Bob Taylor was unable to attend the meeting and she presented information on the new map for the town of Yoder. 

“We don’t have representation about the map since Bob’s not here. Rod Weyrich (Town of Yoder Maintenance Supervisor) brought it in yesterday (Monday) to file and it needs the commissioner’s signature. There’s like three properties in Yoder that were annexed in but they never gave them a lot and block name and so for many years they’ve still had to be described as township, range and section so now this map is being recorded to actually have them as lot and block,” Feagler said.

Burkart clarified the properties had already been annexed. The map was just being updated.

McNamee signed the map and the commission moved on to hearing from county road and bridge superintendent Chris Stoddard. Stoddard presented the resolution 2024-15 regarding the ownership and maintenance of the roads in Dillman County Estates and the county road portion of Prairie Drive which was read by McNamee and a discussion ensued. 

The resolution explained the roadways for the estates have been maintained by the owners for the last 42 years. The county has conducted research regarding the legal creation of the roads within the estate’s subdivision. It is the desire of the county and the homeowner’s association of the estates to resolve the issue of ownership and maintenance responsibility of the roads. The county and the homeowner’s association had negotiated and agreed on certain improvements to the road in the subdivision. The county and the homeowner’s association wish to enter into an agreement regarding the concern roadways. 

“A little bit of background, I guess just to kind of go back and I think that when as is mentioned in the resolution this goes back 42 years something that has come up and has been on our radar certainly since commissioner Walsh and I took over,” McNamee said. “To me, the most important part of that resolution is the research that has been done.”

According to McNamee, there has been residents who have read the current correspondence differently reflecting on documentation the commission received this morning.

“I would like to add to this. This actually, in my opinion on this and how I’ve read this and gone through all these documents, this is something that needs to have this clarification on that. Homeowner’s associations should not be the responsibility county because that opens the door to any and every subdivision that we put in place in the county will be subject to county road if not clarified properly and the county can’t afford to add extra roads for every single subdivision and have the county responsible for those,” Walsh said. 

“That’s exactly where we’re at. If we did maintain subdivision roads and continue to do that each subdivision is going to ask, each homeowners association is going to ask us to do that,” Stoddard said.

Stoddard recommended moving toward with the resolution, however the commission received an email moments before the meeting which contained additional information about the issue. 

After a brief discussion, the commission tabled the item and moved on to hearing about various projects in the county from Stoddard. McNamee told Stoddard residents in the area were pleased with the road and bridge department working on some of the dry dirt roads recently. 

Walsh motioned to accept the road and bridge report, which was seconded by Burkart. The motion passed. 

The treasurer’s report was read to the commission by McNamee since Dominguez provided her report to the commission in her absence. The report was accepted by vote and the commission moved on to the county clerks report. 

Feagler provided an updated warrant report, payroll liabilities report and an election grant for cameras. Feagler noted the election payroll was $12,500.

“Before the general election, I applied for a grant from the secretary of state’s office that was a security election grant to buy a couple of game cameras. The day before the election, we take all of the election equipment to the polling places,” Feagler explained. “We set up a security camera on them so when they sit overnight, if anything were to happen, we would have that on video. We have a couple of polling places where the internet connection is iffy and some days it will connect and some days it won’t,” Feagler explained. 

Feagler noted the grant would allow for the county to purchase game cameras for the election areas.

The commission approved Feagler’s reports and grant and then moved on to the additional agenda item, the emergency manager/fire warden’s report where the commission heard from Thomas Bozeman. Bozeman spoke on the fire bans still in place in Wyoming. 

“Quickly, everybody knows that we’re still on our stage one fire ban. Basically, an update from the last meeting Natrona County did drop their fire restrictions,” Bozeman said. “With that being said, we still have 10 counties mostly in the east part of the state that are still under fire restriction.”

The commission agreed with Bozeman’s recommendation to keep the fire ban in place for Goshen County based on the fact the county is well below the average precipitation for the month and the extreme drought throughout Wyoming. A motion was made to accept Bozeman’s report which was seconded and approved by the commission. 

During the library report, the commission learned the Goshen County Public Library had been busy. It was reported there were 4,200 patrons of the library which is 1,000 more than the same month last year. More items have also been checked out; it was reported to the commission. A motion was made by Walsh and seconded by Burkart. The motion to accept the report was approved. 

The commission also approved the University of Wyoming Extension report, fair report, public health report and the IT department report. All reports were approved after discussion. 

Moving on to new business, the commission heard from Ryan Alan from the state water office and Cory Reinhart with the Wyoming State Engineer’s Office. Alan and Reinhart spoke to the commission on the disposition of water rights, specifically in subdivisions. 

Moriah Harkins of the chamber of commerce spoke to the commission on America’s Semi quincentennial 2026 grant opportunity. Harkins explained a Wyoming’s Community Event Grant opportunity would assist the community in celebrating the 250th anniversary of the United States’ founding, noting the grant would pay for everything but fireworks. Harkins asked the commission for a proclamation recognizing the celebration to complete the grant process. She also requested a commissioner join the planning committee. 

Next the council heard from Prism Paint. The company was contracted to paint a few rooms at Goshen County Public Health.

McNamee thanked the company for attending the meeting and stated he had read through all of the correspondence prior.

“For the sake of time, our position on it right now is we have been filled in with the current state of the job that has been done,” McNamee said. 

McNamee went on to explain the commissioners had been made aware of the problems from public health and they wanted to allow the company to speak. The company stated there had been miss understandings between the company and public health. It was noted there were several “problem” employees of the company who since have been terminated. The company had been working over-night hours to complete the project and they wanted to be allowed to continue the project and they wanted justification for why they were no longer allowed on the property. The company noted there were damages to the light covers prior to the project being started due to the age of the covers.

Public health explained to the commission the company had made paint messes on the carpet, painted door frames which were to be left alone and they had received a message from the company staying they were finished and they had run out of paint and supplies. Public health also mentioned the discrepancy on the company invoice was due to the fact a grant was used to purchase paint directly from the hardware store instead of having the company purchase the paint and be reimbursed. They also agreed the light fixtures were brittle and old and the company should not have to pay to replace them. 

The commission responded they needed to sit down with public health and overlook the contract and a contract drafted by the county attorney would be given to the company should the commission decided it was in best interest to move toward with the company.

“If there is any opportunity that we can move forward and figure out a way to finish it, we would have you do that, but you have to understand, sometimes, you come to a point where if that ship has sailed and if we deem that this situation is not beneficial to us, we will end the project where it’s at and we will let both parties move on,” McNamee said. 

The commission agreed to let Prism Paint know what they determine. 

A motion was made to accept the 2025 calendar as presented which was seconded. 

The meeting was the adjourned at 11:20 a.m. and the next meeting will be held on Tuesday, December 3 at 9 a.m.