LINGLE – The Lingle Town Council met at the community center Wednesday at 6 p.m. for the bi-weekly discussion of upcoming events, projects, and mild concerns. 

Despite the meeting on the eve of coveted Fourth of July celebrations, the council remained productive in their responsibilities to the community.

In attendance were Lingle Mayor Micah Foster as well as council members Tabitha Lambert, Kathy Willhelm, Jeff Jerome, and Shelly Duncan.

Although the meeting remained moderately simple, council members showed diligence while diplomatically voicing reasonable concerns when it came to various items on the agenda.

While the council notably reviewed routine town expenditures for this period, council member Duncan expressed mild concern as to why bills this time seemed to be a little more on the costly side.

According to Lingle Treasurer Nikisha Garner, it is perfectly normal for community bills this year to be a bit more expensive primarily due to the town pool being open for business.

“So, the pool season generally puts us briefly in the hole,” Garner explained. “This month we had more expenses than revenues, as this pool season started with $3,000 worth of expenses for repairs. Plus, we finally got cameras installed so this also was a big chunk, six grand to install those actually. Finally, the fire department’s annual reimbursement was another big one. It’s not an every-month thing but expenses this time of year are bigger and vary. Not a whole lot though however.” 

Additionally, when it came to the topic of recent happenings at the pool, manager Emily Cottrell briefly touched base on certain requests made by local lifeguards. More specifically how appreciative they have been by the ongoing support of community residents, and how greatly they would like to express that very appreciation.

Cottrell mentioned conspicuously this applies predominantly to the Lingle Volunteer Fire Department and all the hard work and dedication in keeping residents safe from a recent dangerous wildfire.

“We are just finishing our second round of swimming lessons, and we will start session three next week,” Cottrell said. “We are filled essentially every session, which continues to bring money into the pool. On the agenda, if you guys remember, last month I mentioned St. Joe’s donated money for a free swim. The way it works is they did two-hour sessions, and we will do one four-hour session and offer it from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on free swim day. The pool employees would like to have permission to give thanks back to the people in the community such as the fire department and offer them a night of family swim.”

The meeting moved forward with the required discussion of town maintenance. Town supervisor Logan Dailey would reiterate with a bit of simple humor how both he and assistant supervisor Jeremy Jackson have stayed quite busy with recent town repairs.

“Well, we had someone accidentally drive into our building, so we will have to have some conversations about that and see how we are going to repair the building with any alternatives,” Dailey said with a smirk. “Jeremy and I had a late night on Monday with a water line we needed to repair. It had been buried in the shutoff and so we went in to find the shutoff, found the water line, got it repaired, and got a curb stop installed. Everything is good there. We have been working on the lead copper inventory and keeping up with tree trimming. One tree at Lira Park is almost dead, and I’m concerned it’s diseased so we will have some more discussions there. We also went ahead and repaired the pipe at the cemetery, which was run over, and we also got AEDs installed at the pool.”

Perhaps the most noteworthy discussion had during Lingle’s Town Council occurred during the third reading of “Ordinance #369 Amending Section 1 Ordinance #252 providing for the permitting process and the keeping of fowl within the town limits of the town of Lingle, Wyoming.”

Councilmember Jerome voiced logical concern over the matter, suggesting it should possibly be tabled for further discussion.

“I got a little smarter this week,” Jerome joked. “But I learned the city code has a variance process listed where there have been at least two approvals for chickens in the town of Lingle with no denials I’m aware of. I don’t think we need to make a special ordinance just for chickens and I recommend we go through a variance process. I don’t know of any folks who are beating down town hall doors to install chicken on the property, and I’m not sure of anyone being harmed by not having a chicken ordinance. I would move that we table this ordinance.”

“Before you do that it’s not debatable,” Duncan responded. “So, I would ask we not move yet so we can have more discussions, and I would like to. The whole purpose of the chicken ordinance versus a variance is the burden on town members having to go through the variance process by submitting a permit or applying for one in town. The whole idea is to go around and get a letter of approval, and also ask your neighbors. You have to apply and it’s not any different than if you were to add a building to your property. You have to have sketches, designs, and all those particulars, and then you submit them. And you have to advertise them in the newspaper for so many weeks before you can have a permit. It eliminates the burden and the red tape, so that’s the idea behind it. You have to submit your drawings, and structures and get approval. Basically, you have to advertise, whereas in an ordinance you don’t have to do that. You just have to get your normal code of zoning and such. Your fence has to be so far away and things like that. Those things are already established.”

The ordinance would pass with a 3-2 majority vote. 

Additionally, the third reading of “Ordinance #370 amending Section 1 and Section 2 of Ordinance #24 providing for the regulation and use of punch boards, slot machines and all gambling devices and games of chance in the town of Lingle, Wyoming,” would also pass with a unanimous vote by the council.

The meeting adjourned at 6:45 p.m. and will reconvene on July 17 once again at the community center at 6 p.m.