LINGLE – The Lingle Town Council convened for its first November meeting on Wednesday, Novomber 6, at 6 p.m. Mayor Micah Foster was present, along with councilmembers Tabitha Lambert, Kathy Wilhelm, Jeff Jerome and Shelly Duncan, who appeared via Zoom.

Wilhelm motioned to approve the agenda with the addition of an action item to discuss and vote on the approval of a bid to close the town's landfill. The motion passed.

"The first thing is the recommendation from Rachelle [Anderson] at Benchmark, the recommendation to accept the bid that came from Bietz Moving Dirt," town clerk/treasurer Ritch Reyes said. 

Wilhelm noted a "huge" difference in the bid numbers presented and questioned the difference. The bids listed on the recommendation were Bietz Moving Dirt, LLC, at $25,921.34; Van Pelt Fencing Co., at $44,975.67; and Wayne Coleman Construction, Inc., at $92,307.

"All I can say is that Rachelle took these numbers and researched them," Reyes replied.

"She said she was familiar with the companies," Dailey added. "A lot of it depends on where they are coming from and what they are willing to bid out for the job. It doesn't sound like there is any disparity in whether it's the quality of work or the amount of work that is going to be done."

Dailey explained that Anderson had given each company bidding on the project a packet containing the project's requirements. He noted that Anderson wouldn't have recommended them if they didn't meet the threshold required by the project's requirements.

The council approved the bid.

Under new business, the council agreed to waive the December 18 council meeting so people could spend time with their families during the holiday season. 

Additionally, the council agreed to have a special meeting on December 6 to host a Christmas Party for the town employees and representatives.

During council items, Wilhelm said she had some residents stop and ask her about water meters.

"Just to give everybody a heads-up, what I have been telling them is to not to read too much into it. This has to do with us applying for grants, not for us to charge you for water. There were still a lot of concerns. 'Who is going to pay for it?' I said you are so far ahead of us with your questions that we have nothing to give you. This was opening a door, so if anyone hears anything, that was my response to our residents."

"Essentially, we are just hoping for grant money to do that," Garner added. "If we don't do that, no grant money will be able to be funded to us for any future water catastrophes our system may have."

"I went through the bills," Lambert said. "Everything looked good. Total expenditures were $137,534.92, [and] total revenue of $126,859.81, leaving us in the red [with] $10,675.11."

Lambert motioned to pay the bills. Foster asked for an amendment to the motion to include the approval of September's bills as Deputy Clerk/Treasurer Nakisha Garner informed the council of a decrease in workman's compensation in July and a missed credit card payment on a utility account. Garner adjusted September's billing to reflect the change and error. The council approved the motion.

Police Chief Endra Andrews provided her report to the council.

"This last couple of weeks have been all about traffic and meeting people and open juvenile cases, with visits to district court, DFS, and tomorrow I have a forensic interview in Scottsbluff that I must attend, so there will be a lot of report writing," Andrews said.

Town supervisor Logan Dailey provided his report to the council.

“I attended the bid opening for the landfill,” Dailey said. “We had three bids that were submitted to choose from. Other than that, we have finished up the winterization at the parks and the pool, and we have done a little bit of tree trimming; we are going to start doing more of that, especially trimming up around a few power lines. We acquired our vehicle today; we went down and purchased the Kawasaki Mule with the blade on it. 

I think that’s going to come in very handy. It’s a bigger machine than our old Mule, so I think we will be able to do some good stuff with that. Jeremy has his test scheduled for Nov. 12, so he will be going down there to take his water test.”

Fire Chief Kasey Bangerter provided his report to the council.

“Last month, we had seven ambulance calls and two fire calls,” Bangerter said. “We had our haunted house; [it] seemed to go over pretty well. We had quite a few people come in and out. 

Coming up, most all of our EMTs but two are going to take part in the advanced class, so that will be quite a bit of work for them for a while, but it will be nice to have some advanced EMTs. Logan picked up our motorcycles we have been talking about; they went back to Cheyenne to get upfitted with lights and everything. 

We are in conversation with Black Hills [Energy]; they are trying to rebid our gas line to get it into our fire hall. In a couple of months, we are going to host another coyote hunt, like we did last year, around the 10th of January. We will have pictures and Santa Claus at the Fire Hall the 22nd and 23rd [of November].”

Lambert added the open house at the Fire Hall with Santa Claus will take place November 22 from 5-7 p.m. and November 23 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Reyes gave his report to the council.

“I have been in contact with the people at the USDA office in Casper about our sewer rehab project,” Reyes said. “There are different aspects that we have to fulfill to start with the application process. When I spoke to a gentleman by the name of Evan in Casper, one of the things we have to do is we have to apply for a commercial loan at the bank because with USDA, it’s all needs based. If we don’t qualify for a loan, then we can work with USDA. 

I just need permission to start the loan process with the bank.”

“My understanding is we have to be declined from the bank before the USDA will even look at an application,” Foster said. “So, we have to ask for a loan, then get denied. I don’t like it.”

“Absolutely against it; we don’t need to be borrowing any money,” Duncan said.

The council thanked Reyes for his work on the USDA grant and loan program but denied proceeding due to its potentially injurious nature.