GOSHEN COUNTY – The June 3 meeting of the Goshen County Commissioners was called to order at 9 a.m. by chairman Micheal McNamee. In attendance for the Tuesday meeting were fellow commissioners Justin Burkart and Aaron Walsh along with county clerk, Mary Fealger. 

A motion was made to approve the revised agenda to exclude a maintenance supervisor report from Kevin Flock, which was seconded and carried by vote. The commissioners also approved the meeting minutes from May 20. 

“I kind of always think about my chairman’s opening comments and the last couple I’ve been kind of Debbie Downer so, I want to begin today’s meeting on a high note,” McNamee said. “One thing I failed to mention was Goshen County, including three high schools in the county, along with EWC (Eastern Wyoming College), graduated a crop of seniors. I would like to, on behalf of my fellow commissioners, congratulate all of the seniors in Goshen County that graduated.”

McNamee went on to thank Feagler for organizing a crew of people to help clean the Adam Walters Botanical Park in south Torrington. McNamee noted there were about 18 volunteers to help clean.

“[We] weren’t able to get everything done that we wanted to, but it was a start. Mary [Feagler], a big thanks to you and your crew in the clerk’s office for organizing that,” McNamee said. 

McNamee noted updates would be provided by the road and bridge department in regard to Monday evening’s storm. 

“[I] hope that everybody was safe. I know that there was some flooding out in the Lingle area, lot of downed trees and tree branches and even one structure that commissioner Burkart was showing us that was a shop that was destroyed in the deal,” McNamee said as the commission rolled into departmental reports.

“For the month of May, I’m reporting that my office turned in $3,727.56,” clerk of court, Brandie Correa reported. 

With nothing further to address, a motion was made to accept the report, which was seconded and carried by vote. 

Moving on the grant writer’s report, Hannah Fullmer reported to the commissioners. 

“For me, the grants I have in progress, I have a Safe Streets and Roads for all Grant. That’s from the U.S. Department of Transportation and the purpose is a safety action plan on all routes in our jurisdiction, so that includes all the towns, state highways, everything,” Fullmer reported. “That application due date for that one is June 26 and there is a local match of 20%.”

Fullmer noted the grant would more than likely come to the commissioners during the next meeting. 

“For the T-Mobile Hometown Grant Program, we did hear back,” Fullmer said noting the county was unable to secure the grant.

Fullmer noted there were a lot of grant applicants for the program and only about 25 were selected. She further explained she would be reapplying after some adjustments are made. 

“As always, I continue to research, find grants, send them to department head and see if they’re interested or if they have any project in line with it. There are no other new award announcements for the month of May. Other than that, I just had regular meetings on those grant programs and kind of moving forward with those,” Fullmer explained. 

After a bit more discussion, a motion was made by Walsh to approve the grant writer’s report. Burkart seconded the motion and it carried by vote. 

Next, the commissioners heard from the road and bridge department.

“Thank you for your attention and for your commitment to being out and seeing what was going on in the county last night,” McNamee said to Chris Stoddard. 

“So, from probably about Road 50 north, everything south of that seems to be in better shape,” Stoddard reported. “In a situation like that, it’s never fun to be out in it trying to figure out what’s going on. But the really exciting part of that last night for me was coordination that we had with Yoder Fire being out and checking things and making sure what was going on. Justin [Burkart] and I coordinated really well. That was just exciting to know that we were working together on that.”

“We also had Tom [Bozeman] and Chuck {Kenyon] out as well,” Burkart added. “We were all three around, but they just kind of got fumbled down to me, to you.”

“I was tickled, you know, that we could all communicate that way and work together in a situation like that,” Stoddard explained. “That being said, we do have some roads that we had some culverts wash out on.”

Stoddard noted the storm washed one culvert out they had looked at Sunday. He also mentioned, further north in the county, they received some nice rain but nothing was in bad shape.

“We have a spot right now down here just south and just north of the valley. They got hit pretty hard. I haven’t run across anything yet that was impassable in my journeys this morning and last night,” Stoddard said. “But there are definitely some roads out there that if you don’t have a four-wheel drive pickup, you’re probably going to have a little trouble getting through it.”

“It sounds like Goshen Hole is kind of greasy right now. We’ve got some truck that are off the road and stuck. I’m not even sure that we can get a blade in there to get them out right now,” Stoddard said. “We’re just going to have to hopefully dry out enough this afternoon to give them a hand.” 

Stoddard further noted any dangerous road conditions which could cause an accident would be taken care of Tuesday. 

“But I’m not going to send the trucks out with aggregate or base or anything like that to fill a lot of this stuff in. It just sounds like we’re going to get it again tonight, so it’s pointless for us to go out and put a bunch of material in the roads,” Stoddard said. “It’s just going to have the possibility to get washed out. But the guys are out.”

Stoddard continued to report the roadways were being repaired. He further stated the “problem” areas seemed just fine as the storm was spotty.

“Some places got a whole bunch of rain and other places just got a nice shower,” Stoddard noted.

Trees were also a problem for county crews, Stoddard added, noting downed trees on Buttermilk Road.

“But the problem places, we seem to be in fairly good shape with the exception of the first branches and a whole lot of leaves and trash on the road. But nothing that’s going to create an accident or causes any problems today and tomorrow. And really, that’s about all I’ve got – we were making progress. It was nice to have moisture in the road. We started getting things shaped up and they were really starting to look nice. Now we’re going to start all over,” Stoddard said.

“That’s the feast of fathom part of it and I guess we all know that’s what we deal with. I think if there are people out in the county that, [if] they haven’t seen a representative from the road and bridge around, kind of check those roads, you can always make a phone call,” McNamee said. “I think the other thing is you guys talked about being out on those roads last night so that you were aware of what was going on. I would encourage people, if you don’t have to be out on them, stay off of them. It’s just those thousands of miles of dirt road that we have in Goshen County fall apart pretty quickly when we get moisture and the that deal out in the Goshen Hole area is a great example of it.”

Mike Tietjen from the planning commission noted they are continuing to work on the CAFO regulation update. Tietjen further noted the permit was $100. 

Feagler noted the cost of publishing a liquor license permit was $1,500, which is billed to the license holder, and she suggested Tietjen tell those seeking the permit they would be billed for the public notice as required. 

After a bit more discussion on CAFO, the commissioners moved on to a report form Bob Taylor. 

Taylor noted he had been helping Stoddard and Fullmer.

“Hannah [Fullmer] is one of the best decisions you ever made and as far as a grant writer, she’s doing a really good job,” Taylor said. “We really need to, as you mentioned earlier, keep pursing those grants no matter what we think the outcome will be. We need to work on it. We certainly need the help.”

After a bit more discussion and gratitude for the county’s work as a result of the storm, a motion was made to accept the road and bridge report and the commissioners moved on to the county clerk’s report.

“I have the minutes from the last meeting. The earnings for our office for the month of May was $16,571 and I have the payroll report and the vendor or warrant report for your approval.”

Feagler also noted the park cleanup was a success and she further stated there would be another one scheduled. She also attended the Wyoming county clerk’s meeting. Feagler also explained a new law “transfer on death” title transfer, coming to the county, which would give a deceased person’s vehicle to whomever is on file, if that person is made aware they will be the beneficiary of the vehicle. 

“There’s still a lot of things to figure out and we still, I’m sure there will be more talk about it because we still have lots of questions on how to administer that, so that’s just one example of why we need to get together and find out how we do this,” Fealger said. 

“The clerks are in a lawsuit right now. They have lawsuit filed against them along with the secretary of state, so there was some discussion about that too,” Feagler said, highlighting the clerk’s meeting. 

Feagler noted the new law would not overtake the right to survivorship law, which is already in effect. 

“If there’s two names on the title, then that second person, it automatically goes to them without having the jump through anything,” Feagler explained. “So, if they do one of those for their kids, but say they’re a married couple, the spouse is still alive, then that doesn’t take place until both people on the title pass away.”

Adam Trigimba was nominated to the county weed and pest control district. A motion was made to accept the nomination by Burkart, which was seconded by Walsh. The motion carried and Trigimba was appointed to the district as a director for area five.

With no further discussion on the clerk’s report, the commissioners approved the reports Feagler provided and moved on to Tom Bozeman’s report’s, the emergency manager, fire warden and IT reports.

Bozeman noted it had been a long night. The commissioners had received his report prior to the meeting and he dove into the highlights of his report.

Bozeman advised the commissioners of training he had attended for the emergency management side of his report. 

“We are getting ready to set off the ready-set-go throughout the rest of the state,” Bozeman said. “Our county is slated to kick off somewhere between July 1 and July 15.”

Bozeman noted there will be information out to the public soon. He also updated the commissioners on grants, noting reimbursements have started coming in. 

“From the fire warden side, even though we did have a lot of rain over the last month or so, we’re still well below average for the year. We’re just about two inches below average for January through this time of year,” Bozeman reported. “According to the National Weather Service and the Geographic Geology, we’re still in a D3 drought.”

Bozeman continued with a storm update where he reported the estimate wind speed was 60 to 70 miles per hour during Monday’s storm. He further explained a vacant trailer house in Lingle had been overturned from the winds.

“On the IT side, we started our network refresh with the stuff’s new program, NowProvision, should be shipping out in the next couple of weeks. As that stuff comes in, we’ll be doing a phase implementation to get our network completely refreshed,” Bozeman said.

Bozeman noted there was a new hire in the IT department who “seems to be well-rounded, well qualified” for the position. Bozeman also requested Sandra Ellis, the administrivia assistant for the department be given a credit card to pay vendors. He further explained there are some vendors who don’t accept warrants. 

After a bit of discussion, a motion was made to accept Bozeman’s reports and approve the credit card for Ellis.

Next, the commissioners heard the public health report where the new manager was introduced. Heather Dittler was promoted to public health manager. It was noted she had been with the county’s local public health office for three years as a nurse and shown a lot of leadership. 

“We have a few items we wanted to let you know about. Primary of which was a grant agreement, a contract between the Department of Health and Goshen County for the county health officer. They’ve actually extended it,” the office reported. “So, instead of having to do this every year, this will be good for four years, which is lovely.”

After a bit more discussion, a motion was made by Burkart to approve the county health officer agreement with the state, which was seconded by Walsh. The motion carried. With no further questions or comments, the commissioners also approved the public health report.

“As was mentioned at the beginning of the meeting, we do not have Kevin [Flock] here for a maintenance supervisor report. So, we are going to welcome Debbi [Surratt] for the county assessor report,” McNamee said. 

McNamee noted Surratt had officially been with the county for 40 years and a reception would be held for the assessor Tuesday afternoon.

“Probably the most import thing at this point, our formal protest period is over. That ended on May 19. I did not have any formal protest filled,” Surrat said after a bit of discussion. “It was kind of an odd year, a little bit softer on the questions and concerns more so educating the people about the exemption that were passed, getting them signed up and those kinds of things,” Surratt continued. “Then, of course, every residential structure got 25%, which was a little over 4,000 residential structures received that exemption and then up to the first million. Then, of course, the 4% cap that had been on the books for a couple of years.”

After a bit more discussion and congratulations of service, the commissioners approved Surratt’s report. 

Next the commissioners took a short break before moving on to old business.

“The adoption of the wind energy setting regulations that have been presented to us as commissioners by the planning commission. So, a couple of different thoughts that I’m going to share on this and then I’m going to yield to my fellow commissioners to allow them a similar or the same opportunity,” McNamee said, calling the meeting to order again. “The response to the wind energy regulations that we receive from constituents, the people of the county, what their feelings are in regard to them, as you can imagine, range from everything from they are way too restrictive to you need to put more restrictions in place. We have charged the planning commission with coming up what we believe is a set of regulations that we can work with and they provide for us a foundation. They provide for us a starting point that will allow us to move forward in one direction or another in regard to those regulations,” he continued. “I’ve had probably more enlightening conversations through this process and kind of started back when we dealt with the solar regulations that we put into place. Now, it’s been repeated with the wind regulations.”

“We, as commissioners, are charged with coming up with something that accomplished the mission of what we would like to have it accomplish as commissioners of the county, which is to protect the people of Goshen County, that is our first charge,” McNamee said. “We all know that when we sign on for this job, that is the first and most important job that we are in charge of. Now, the question at that point, it’s not fair. These regs (regulations) aren’t fair.”

McNamee explained companies were coming into Goshen County offering checks to landowners, door to door.

“We’re ready to give you a check right now, if you sign with us. That’s not good for the people of Goshen County. I appreciate the visits that we’ve had with two different companies that have set before our meetings and we’ve had the opportunity to grill you and ask you questions and to learn more about you. That isn’t always the case,” McNamee said. “There is a sense of urgency for us as commissioners to put something in place that will protect the people of Goshen County from those other kinds of companies that may be out there that do not have as honest intentions as maybe some of them do.”

“I think Mr. McNamee said it very well. We get approached on so many different sides of these things and sometimes we don’t know what’s best. We just try to go with what we know about the different projects and try to navigate both sides of It and try to come in the middle where we feel that the county is being protected, try to make the best decision that we can based off of those,” Burkart said, yielding to Walsh.

Walsh stated he agreed, it was important to meet in the middle. The commissioners continued on with their explanation. 

“So, I guess we’ll move toward with putting some regulations in place to hopefully protect the citizens of the county,” Walsh said.

“And know that it’s going to be a fluid process,” Burkart added.

“I would really like to open this up for public comment, but I think that we have been over it. I think that everybody has had the opportunity to present and present again,” McNamee said, calling for a motion to approve the regulations as presented. 

Burkart motioned to adopt the wind energy siting regulations, Walsh seconded and the motion carried. 

McNamee noted there was a meeting scheduled with the administrator of the Industrial Siting Council (ISC) for the State of Wyoming, Jenny Staeben, scheduled for Tuesday, June 10 at 2 p.m. in the Brand Room at the Goshen County Fairgrounds. 

“Jenny [Staeben] is going to be here specifically for the purpose of discussing the process that the ISC takes into considerations when permitting projects such as the solar energy project of any of the wind energy projects. I would encourage people that have questions in regard to that permitting process, if you just want more information, Jenny will be there.”

Moving on to new business, Correa discussed the Wyoming Guardian ad Litem Program, further stating the county could save money by switch to the program instead of using Herb Doby for court cases. Correa noted the commissioner could wait to approve the program until July. 

With nothing further to discuss, the commissioners entered into an executive session regarding the library foundation and the meeting was then adjourned.