GOSHEN COUNTY – The Goshen County Commissioners held their first February meeting on Tuesday, February 4 in their chambers. The meeting was called to order by chairman Michael McNamee at 9 a.m. Commissioners Justin Burkart and Aaron Walsh were present along with Mary Feagler, clerk. The meeting opened with the Pledge of Allegiance which was then followed by a minor adjustment to the morning’s agenda. 

“We will not be having a UW extension report. Mary (Feagler) is going to report on behalf of Brandi (Correa) on the clerk of court’s report,” McNamee said. “But other than that, the agenda has been posted.” 

A motion was made to accept the new agenda, with the extension report removed, which was then seconded. The motion carried, approving the new agenda and the commissioners moved on to approving the meeting minutes from January 21 before moving into to the lengthy opening comments. 

“A couple of things that I would – we were visiting here before the meeting and then as a part of our trip down to Cheyenne, Commissioner Walsh and I went down for the WCCA Legislative Conference in Cheyenne a couple of weeks ago,” McNamee began. “Many of our elected officials were in town for meetings. Meeting with legislators, different things like that. I think it’s worth noting that we get a lot of correspondence back and forth. You know, what are the impacts to Goshen County going to be from the decisions that they are making in Cheyenne?”

McNamee further expressed the county will just have to wait and see what happens.

“I do think that it’s imperative that there are a lot of things going on right now and I think probably most important, too, and what could have the most impact to our county is what they’re considering with property tax reduction bills and those things that are going on down there,” McNamee explained.

According to the chairman, presently there are 12 different bills which could potentially impact what the county receives in property tax. 

“Now, those 12 bills are among 530 different bills that have been filed through the state at the legislature this year,” McNamee said. “So, best advise that I could give, contact your representative and your senator. Cheri Steinmetz, JD Williams and Scott Smith are the people in the trenches down there that are making those decisions that will impact how we operate Goshen County. Reach out to them.”

McNamee noted the county’s special districts are going to be impacted by the decisions. He urged the community to stay in contact with elected officials and turned the floor over to Burkart. 

“I would just like to add that we need to educate the people in Goshen County because some of these bills have really negative consequences to us. When you’re looking at a 50% reduction, you’re looking at fire districts that could be making $40,000 a year, or not making but earning, collecting $40,000 a year. You cut that in half and there’s going to be a lot of departments, statewide, that have to shut their doors. Volunteer fire departments are having a hard enough time and now you’ve got road and bridge. You’ve got the school district. You’ve got the county. You’ve got all the other special districts like weed and pest and all that stuff,” Burkart said. “That’s a huge, huge problem.”

Burkart expressed some of the bills are a “great idea on the surface.”

“I have found out from – I’ve probably had more calls on this deal than I have with the soar or anything else and people don’t understand what property tax dollars fund and they’re like, ‘The state is too fat, we need to cut the state.’ Those monies don’t go to the state, people. It has nothing to do with the state. The state is cutting the local government is what we’re doing.”

Burkart expressed he is not opposed to reducing property taxes

“Now, I am not opposed to seeing what could be done with property taxes and reducing those, whatever the case might be,” Burkart said. “But we can’t just go in there with a blanket statement, ‘We’re just going to cut this,’ because how are you going to fund emergency services, the sheriff’s office, fairgrounds?”

According to Burkart, there are a few counties looking at big cuts and Goshen County is one of them. 

“So, educate your folks. People you know, talk to them about it and contact your reps. I’ve heard that some of the representatives aren’t contacting anybody back. But keep calling them,” Burkart said. “Because the voice should be coming from the constituents that they represent, not from a group that’s calling the shots.”

“The amount you pay in property tax in this area is about $3,800 on average per citizen in a household,” Walsh explained. “That value gives you, for your $3,800, gives you $62,000 worth of services that are provided for each individual per year. So, you’re not paying very much for a huge value that gets kicked back. That’s one thing that we don’t look at. If you actually break that down, you’re a little under $4,000 and you get that kind of value out of it, what else do you buy for that? We’re getting a big bang for our buck with our property tax right now.” 

The commissioners all noted they were passionate about the issue before moving on to the departmental reports where Feagler reported the clerk of district court’s earnings for the month of January were $2,550.04, on behalf of Correa who had a priory engagement. The commissioners approved the report and swiftly moved on to the grant writers report. 

“For January, I attended multiple meetings and have continued to research the grants and for the grants partition, we started the Rural and Tribal Assistance Pilot Program for road and bridge. It’s a project-based planning and design funded program,” county grant writer, Hannah Fullmer said. “We’re still writing the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant for the window replacement at the public health building and the T-Mobile Small Town Grant for the fairgrounds sound system. Those are both due at the end of March.”

“I’m sure that everybody is aware of the approach that the new administration is taking. There have been, I think maybe new attention brought to some of the federal funding, which will no doubt impact grant funding,” McNamee said to Fullmer. “Have you been made aware of anything? Is there anything that we can pass along to people in Goshen County that immediate impacts of that?”

Fullmer explained there hasn’t been much information relayed to her regarding the cuts.

“They put a freeze on grants for just a short amount of time, but they’re back up and running and as far as I can see, I think everything is continuing to work,” Fullmer said.

“[It’s] something that we will continue to watch and I’m sure that you especially will be interested in seeing what happens with the progression of that approach. I don’t think that there’s any way that it won’t, at some point, possibly impact some of what we’re doing,” McNamee explained to Fullmer. “But I think that possibly Goshen County and like counties are, maybe insulated a little bit from that and maybe not as tied to some of those federal grants and different things like that.”

Walsh motioned to accept the grant writers report which was then seconded by Burkart and the commissioners moved on to the road and bridge report. 

“I’m probably fairly confident that you may have gotten a few more phone calls that you have normally gotten over the last month,” superintendent Chris Stoddard said. “We do have some roads that are getting just a little bit rough but we’re warm, cold. Warm, cold. Every time we get out there on those when they’re cold, like it is this morning, we run the risk of just blowing those roads out.” 

Stoddard noted he had received phone calls from community residents however he just explains to them when the days are warmer and the roads are better to work, the department stays busy. Stoddard also explained the northern end of the county had seen some moisture on the roads but things throughout the county were dry. 

“Any phone calls that you’re getting, just let everybody know that we’re working on it. We’re getting there and we’re doing what we need to do to make sure that we don’t end up spending a whole bunch more time and energy repairing blowouts on the roads and things like that,” Stoddard explained. 

Stoddard noted the public has been really good about being patient and just listening to the department’s explanations. Stoddard also explained the weather had been cold but temperatures won’t be staying that way.

“It’s cold. I think the outlook for this month is to be cold again but from what I’ve been looking at, we’re supposed to be warm up above normal temperatures in March. That’s the trend we keep,” Stoddard explained. “I’m a little fearful about moisture and things but it’s going to allow us to get in and do a few of the projects that we already set up and far as the soil stabilizer and things like that.”

Stoddard noted the department had two types of soil stabilators they had planned to experiment with in the areas in the county which needed it the most. He further explained Sheep Creek Road continues to be an issue for the department. Stoddard explained the department finished up a little bit of work on a temporary solution stating there is no point in doing anything permanent at this time because of the temperature which would cause damage to the repair.

“In reference to what we were talking about earlier and the tax cuts and the budget cuts through the legislature for the state and things like that,” Stoddard began. “A lot of time that I’m spending in the office right now is trying to figure out how we can do the same amount that we’re doing with less money. Because there doesn’t seem to be any good solution to a backfill on all of these cuts. I only say that just to let you know that it is something that I’m very concerned about and I’m thinking about and trying to find solutions for it on a daily basis. It’s not going to be simple.”

“We know what we want road and bridge to look like and with cuts like that, it’s going to be tough,” Stoddard said.

“I had someone from Cheyenne tell me, well, locally, you could just raise your mill levies. The state’s going to cut taxes. It will look all nice and fine in Cheyenne. Then they want the county commissioners to come in and raise the mill levies, which does the same thing, right?” Burkart said. “But we’re already at maxed out with the maximum mill levy per state statute.”

McNamee noted this situation was a true example of how the progress local governments have made which have been incremental over time. Stoddard further explained road and bridge maintenance was a cumulative thing and moreover, Stoddard expressed he was concerned about further funding and maintenance. 

“If we back off and back off a little bit, we will finally get to a point of no return where we’re looking at things and going, ‘Okay, 90% of the gravel roads in Goshen County now have to be rebuilt,’” Stoddard said. “We can’t go in and repair.”

“We’re there now,” Bob Taylor of the department said. “I’ve been here my whole life. We’ve never had what we needed to adequately maintain what we had and therefore the road conditions and the bridges and all of our infrastructure have depreciated to the point that we’re there. We’re at the cutoff point.”

Taylor noted there were 125 miles of paved road in the county in need of $3 to $4 million in maintenance. 

“We’re in the hoe. We’ve narrowed that in excess and you take it away now and you don’t know what’s going to happen. I’ve got a pretty good idea of what’s going to happen,” Taylor said.

“Correct me if I’m wrong, but really it leaves the counties in a position of – we maintain well over a thousand miles of county road – and you’re left with no choice but to abandon some of those roads and change what you can focus your attention on,” McNamee said.

Stoddard agreed stating the department would need to look hard at what roads could be a minimum maintenance only road with only maintenance being performed in the spring and fall. After a continued discussion on department updates regarding meetings, permits and regulations Taylor presented the commission with the map of the subdivision located near Lyman, Nebraska. A motion was made to accept the subdivision by Burkart which was seconded by Walsh. A motion was also made to accept the road and bridge report entirely which was made by Walsh and seconded by Burkart. 

Next, the commissioners moved on to the emergency manger and fire warden’s report where Tom Bozeman spoke to the board. Bozeman gave a detailed recap list of trainings and conferences for the department throughout the month and he also provided a report on the status of a few grants and grant purchases. Bozeman then moved on to the fire warden’s report.

“We’re still working on the wildfire mitigation. We’ve been talking with a firm about doing some wildfire mitigation planning for the future. We’re not going to be able to use mitigation funds from this fire to pay for that so we’re trying to find another type of grant process, as the grants continue, to be able to pay for that in the future,” Bozeman said. 

Bozeman also noted Goshen County remains in a D3 or severe drought.

“We’re still almost right at five inches below normal for the year in precipitation and rain so the soil is still dry even though we got a little bit of snow that soaked in,” Bozeman explained. “We’re still – December was the third driest December on record since the 1800s.”

Bozeman explained the month of January was still dry and the drought is increasing. 

“So, we are probably going to be fighting this for the next year, you know, staying on that level of D1 drought type situation,” Bozeman said. 

The emergency manager and fire warden’s reports were accepted and the board moved on to the clerk’s report where Feagler noted the earnings report for the month of January was $12,015. Feagler noted she had a bond and a small discussion ensued. Feagler noted there is a lot of activity going on in Cheyenne and a lot of the bills have to do with elections. She stated a lot of departments are going to have to operate the way they did years ago with the possible decrease in funding. Feagler also noted there was a bill presented, which was introduced by a representative from Goshen County requiring votes to be hand counted. Feagler explained hand counting would be costly to counties and further noted the Campbell County clerk had put together an estimate on how much more money it would cost. 

“It’s also interesting that the state legislators are saying that they need to have the government control back to the state but yet they’re wanting to take the county control and put it to the state,” Feagler commented. “It’s kind of an interesting little arrangement there.”

“I’m just frustrated that our local voice is not being heard. That’s what I’m frustrated about,” Burkart said. 

“Goshen County would be one thing when we deal with what, 6-7,000 votes in an election cycle. What if you are in Laramie County where you’re dealing with 50-60,000 votes,” McNamee said. “I just can’t imagine.” 

 “There has to be more room for error,” Burkart said.

The discussion continued as Feagler explained rule makers believe the hand counting could be completed by 10 p.m. on election day whereas Feagler noted election officials are exhausted after working 14–15-hour polling days. Feagler also explained those people promoting it doesn’t understand the complexity of the ballots.

“Tell me Mary, so when this bill was being drafted by our local rep, what input did he ask from you?” Burkart asked Feagler.

“He did not darken the door of my office,” Feagler explained.

Feagler did further explain she had visited with this specific representative in Cheyenne. 

“I did visit with him a little bit in Cheyenne but it just seems like with all of the people and the ideas that they have, they are not open to listening to people who have been in the trenches doing what they think is not working,” Feagler said. 

“So, on top of dropping your budget, now you have more work to do. Is this coming from the same person,” Walsh asked Feagler who confirmed the same representative supported both bills. 

“I would recommend that everybody go onto the legislative website and look at the committee meeting yesterday (Monday, February 3) because the county clerk from Campbell County, by Zoom, told with numbers the findings that she found in their little hand counting trial,” Feagler said. “It’s very interesting as to how much more money that could actually cost than to our contract. Goshen County pays $24,000 a year, which is more than some of the bigger counties because of the number of polling placing.”

Walsh made a motion to accept the clerk’s reports which consisted of the warrant report and the earnings report and Burkart provided the second. The motion carried and the report was approved.

The commission moved on to accept the public health report and the maintenance supervisor report. 

Under new business a county liquor license hearing where the following business applied for license renewals or transfers: J and J Enterprise Four LLC (doing business as Long Branch Steakhouse and Saloon, Western Cooperative Company (doing business as Frontier Mart, 307 Horse Racing LLC, Darla R. Hayes (Bear Mountain Junction), Table Mountain Vineyards LLC, the Emporium at Hawk Springs LLC and WyoRanch Foods LLC. A motion was made to approve the liquor licenses which was then seconded. The motion carried and the licenses were approved. 

McNamee announced the weed and pest board appointments of Dennis Wolmbolt and Casey Booth and he further explained there was one additional position on the board to be filled. Feagler noted anyone interested could contact the weed and pest department for a petition to be on the board. A motion was made to approve Booth and Wolmbolt which was seconded and approved. 

The commissioners then moved into executive session for a discussion with road and bridge. The meeting was thereafter adjourned.