GOSHEN COUNTY – Chairman Michael McNamee called the Tuesday, March 18 meeting of the Goshen County Commissioners to order at 9 a.m. followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. McNamee was joined by fellow commissioners Aaron Walsh and Justin Burkart. Mary Feagler, county clerk, was also in attendance. Visitors were welcome and McNamee called for a motion to approve the agenda for Tuesday’s meeting. 

A motion was made, seconded and carried, approving the agenda and the commissioners moved on to approving the March 4 meeting minutes as presented. McNamee then moved on to his opening statements. 

“I want to thank everybody for coming out – really just kind of continuing with business as usual. A couple of updates that I think people are going to want to be aware of as we look back on the last legislative session. We now know, kind of, the impacts of the fallout of what the work that they did down there is going to mean to Goshen County,” McNamee said. “We will continue to prepare for the changes that will come as a result of that. Obviously, the first thing that comes to mind is the money and so what that will look like we don’t know exactly, yet, but we will continue to explore that. That will continue to be kind of bigger and more important quest as we get ingot our budget talks later this spring.”

McNamee concluded by thanking representatives who traveled to Cheyenne during the legislative sessions. Burkart and Walsh had no comment but nodded in agreement throughout McNamee’s statement. 

Moving on to departmental reports, the commissioners heard from sheriff Kory Fleenor. Fleenor provided the department’s earnings report and commissary report to the commission. A brief discussion ensued regarding contract housing for the detention center. Fleenor expressed the state inmate count was not something the county could count on, not set in stone. With no further questions or comments, a motion was swiftly made to accept Fleenor’s report which carried by vote. 

Next, Chris Stoddard presented the road and bridge report to the commissioners. Stoddard noted he had a resolution available for the commissioners for the Dura patch machine.

“I mentioned the resolution and they decided we didn’t need to do a resolution on that,” Feagler explained. “But I do have a voucher for it, okay?

Stoddard reiterated on the purchase noting the machine will be used on large cracks. A motion was made to accept the purchase of a $15,500 Dura patch machine which was then seconded. The motion to purchase carried by vote which will eliminate borrowing machinery from the city. 

Stoddard noted the machine was coming from Missouri. He also told the commissioners Goshen County did not get as much moisture as he had hoped it would but he is hopeful for some rain this spring. Stoddard also explained his crew will be watching training and safety videos. With no further discussion, a motion was made to accept the report from road and bridge which was carried by vote.

Leticia Dominguez presented her treasurer report to the commission. Dominguez noted on her report, the county took in $423,000 in sales tax which included the second distribution from the derby club. Dominguez noted tax from the Skillz games has gone down a little bit.

“They are going to offer the tax refund program this year again,” Dominguez said. “Those applications will be going out April 1 to all the residents that applied for it and received it last year and we will be getting those as well.”

Dominguez also explained her department had received a demo for the QuickBooks replacement on Monday which went very well. Dominguez noted her department was going to go with the new program, TaxWise. Dominguez explained she felt the new program would make distributions easier. Dominguez also spoke to the commissioners on grants.gov and fema.gov access for Thomas Bozeman (emergency manager/fire warden) and Hannah Fullmer (grant writer) stating Bozeman and Fullmer are the ones who need access. McNamee indicated he wasn’t sure who the commissioners needed to talk for Bozeman and Fullmer to have access. Bozeman explained to the commissioners Dominguez is listed as the administrator for the county instead of the financial person giving her full access to make amendments to grants and likes of the like. 

Burkart made a motion to add Fullmer, Bozeman and Dominguez to administrative access grants.gov and fema.gov. The motion further gave Bozeman authorization to reduce the amount of UEI accounts the county had and gave Dominguez the responsibility to come to the commissioners with any updates in the permissions of the websites. The lengthy motion was seconded by Walsh. The motion carried by vote and access was approved. A motion was then made to accept Dominguez’s report which carried by vote.

Accidently skipping over the county clerk’s report, the commissioners heard from the library board secretary, Andrea Matlock, who noted the library was up about 12% in patron visits this year. Matlock further explained the increase was largely due to the increase in children attending events. She provided an update on the maker’s space room noting the purchase of equipment and furniture with funding from the recreation board and Wyoming Community Foundation. The library hopes to open the area to the public in June, Matlock explained. After a brief discussion, a motion was made to accept Matlock’s report which was seconded. The motion carried by vote and the report was approved by the commissioners.

After jumping ahead, the commissioners returned to the clerk’s report where Feagler noted she had a few mid-month vouchers for a late bill and the public health department. Feagler explained the bills had come in after numbers had been calculated which is way the appeared in front of the commissioners and not on the excel sheet.

“Last year, you guys signed a letter for Goshen Irrigation District (GID) asking for support. It was sent to Harriet Hageman and they brought another letter in for this year and it’s about the tunnel repairs,” Feagler explained to the commissioners. 

McNamee paraphrased the letter stating the letter indicated the commissioners supported the pursuit of funds to help promote Hageman the need for funds to repair the tunnels. With a short discussion, the commissioners agreed to sign the letter supporting GID’s mission. A motion was made to accept Feagler’s report which was then seconded and carried by vote. 

Next, the commissioners moved on to Debbi Surratt’s assessor’s report. Surratt noted she just wanted to touch base with the commissioners.

“I’m trying to muddle through all the exemptions, trying to figure them out right now,” Surratt said. “The governor just signed the bill for the order of exemptions and I’m sure you’ve probably heard that. For us, the order would be smallest to largest is how we’re to apply them. The reason that that’s important is because some of them are applied to the market value, some of them are applied to the assessed value and so then the valuation is changing so everybody gets a 4% cap first. Then the 25% applied to everybody and we would remove those from those long-term homeowners that had applied because they can’t have both.”

The discussion continued on regarding exemptions and applications however Surratt noted until she gets everything figured how, things are just confusing. Before a motion was made to accept, Walsh had a few questions for Surratt.

“How long have you been doing this for?” Walsh asked.

“In May, I will be with the county 40 years,” Surratt said. “I’m serving my ninth term.”

“Within your 40 years, have you seen legislation so messed up in this?” Walsh asked.

“No. Never. Matter of fact, I think that as even the assessor group, when we started seeing potential legislation coming up, we kind of laughed and just said, ‘This will never go,’ and it did,” Surratt explained. “Anyway, they don’t care, you know, and that was the one that that I thought was probably the most disheartened when the director of the department of revenue was giving them reasons why this isn’t going to work – we can’t do this. They didn’t care. The level of respect is gone.”

Surratt further noted a professional colleague had confided she had never felt such hate toward bureaucracy and she hated what had come out of legislation. She further noted as soon as she could get the commissioners something in writing, she would. A motion was then made to accept Surratt’s report which was seconded and carried by vote.

The commissioners moved on to the University of Wyoming Extension report where it was expressed the office had been busy this month. It was noted educator Amy Smith was absent at a mandatory training in Wheatland. Smith conducted a pesticide safety training program and attended the Harvest Wyoming Conference in Cheyenne. Smith’s report also explained the 4-H robotics program was ramping up and clinics have been held. It was reported three participants in the compass program through the school district graduated as well and 13 participants are expected next fall. The report also expressed a concern regarding funding for the backpack program noting it currently serves nearly 400 families – but with the lack of funding the extension isn’t sure what things will look like. With a little further discussion on the extension’s work throughout the school district, college and senior community, a motion was made to accept the report provided which was then seconded. The motion carried and the commissioners moved on to the fair report. 

Stephanie Lofink spoke to the commissioners on the fair report and introduced the county’s new fair director. Lofink stated she is currently training and reviewing data. Lofkin stated Lori Schafer, fair show coordinator, will work as a consult for the new position. Lofkin noted there was nothing abnormal in the financial portion of her report. 

“Three main things we need to visit about this morning are our HVAC unit. Mary contracted me with the account the general has $25,000 to contribute to that $35,000 estimate. Could the fair ground withstand another $10,000? Yes and no. So, I need approval on which approach we take,” Lofink said. “We have a small amount in our general reserve. If we take our $10,000 out of that what we would have left to operate on if we, again, encountered any unexpected expenditures.”

Lofink stated she didn’t want to deplete the capitol facilities accounts but could use money from the reserve pending a reimbursement from a different account. Lofink also offered the option of absorbing the expense and only seeking reimbursement if it was needed.

“We were approached about a contribution to the bucket truck for the IT department and of course we would be able to use that. Because we spend several thousand dollars annually renting equipment, we feel a little obligated to make some sort of a contribution so if we took your $25,000 from general and $5,000 from our reserve, $5,000 from the cap back (capitol facilities), so then we’d have the contingency of drawing that other $5,000 from the cap fac if we needed it to reimburse for that $10,000. That would allow us to contribute maybe $2,000 – $2,500 to the bucket truck. Just a matter of where you take the money from now or later,” Lofink explained. 

“Robbing Peter to pay Paul type of deal,” McNamee commented. 

Lofink explained the capitol facilities fund was set aside for specific maintenance so it can’t go into the general fund furthermore it would need to be applied to an actual project and the HVAC project would fit the criteria. 

Feagler noted there was a voucher for the bucket truck and further explained which departments contributed to the purchase. It was noted the fair department did not have the funds to contribute due to expenses for repairs. After a brief discussion on finding rubber mats to park the truck on, the commissioners resumed their discussion regarding the funding. Burkart noted the contributions by department seemed steep in consideration to the amount of use the specific department would have for the truck. 

“The bucket truck, I think, would be a win for the county,” grounds maintenance supervisor Eleno Oliva said. “But at the same time, if we, we as the fairgrounds needs a heater or something like that, the HVAC, I think that’d be more prioritized than anything else.”

“I know from the IT standpoint, we’ve got a lot of outdated equipment and that $15,000 is going to be needed elsewhere,” Burkart said.

Lofink noted years prior, the department had looked at purchasing a truck however she noted OSHA inspections become costly and with a cost analysis, the department held off on the purchase stating it was cheaper to rent. Lofink noted the bucket truck could be handy but only if you have cash at disposal, speaking from her department. Lofink further explained there were two other HVAC units of the same age on the building as well. Bozeman indicated there could be some potential grant funding available for the HVAC units. Lofink noted the grants would be helpful later down the road but for now the department is stuck. 

“Well, what would be my recommendation – we’ve all got a little skin in the game is we do $30,000 and then you kick in $5,000 or something out of your capital and then you don’t have to pay for the 27 or whatever you were talking about for the bucket truck,” Burkart said.

“I think that accomplishes our mission of maybe accessing but not completely depleting your cap fac funds so I would agree with that recommendation,” McNamee said. 

Feagler further indicated the meeting minutes for Monday will indicate the contributions from each department for the expense of the truck and funds will be made available for HVAC repairs. 

Lofink stated she was working on the budget and asked for guidance from the commissioners. 

“I’m going to send out a letter to all department heads are telling them it’s going to be an 8.2% cut and if they could, when they’re turning their budgets back into us, try to cut their budgets,” Feagler said. “There might be some departments that have more to cut than others so we’ll just see at the end how it all averages out.” 

Feagler noted budgets should be ready to present in May.

Oliva then provided an update on the ground’s maintenance explaining the lighting project on the pavilion has been completed. Oliva noted he had started painting the chutes and he thanked road and bridge for letting the grounds department use their equipment. A motion was also made to approve the distribution of funds for the HVAC unit repair which carried by vote. 

With no further discussion or question, the commissioners approved the fair department report and the meeting was adjourned after an executive session regarding road and bridge personnel.