GOSHEN COUNTY – The first November meeting for the Goshen County Commissioners was rescheduled for Wednesday, November 6 at the regularly scheduled time due to the general election on Tuesday. Chairman Michael McNamee called the meeting to order and led vice chairman Justin Burkart and fellow commissioner Aaron Walsh in the Pledge of Allegiance promptly at 9 a.m. 

A motion was swiftly made by Walsh and seconded by Burkart to accept the minutes from the previous meeting, which was passed and approved as presented by the commission. 

McNamee announced there were updates and revisions to the agenda for Wednesday’s meeting adding a county assessor’s report to the departmental reports and two new items were added under new business: an IT commerce request and the zoning and planning board. A motion was made by Walsh and seconded by Burkart to accept the revised agenda. The motion carried and the agenda was approved. 

“Just a quick couple of comments I would like to make, another election cycle is behind us and I know that the person to my right (Mary Feagler county clerk/treasure), there’s no one more relieved to have it over than Mary,” McNamee said. “Just a huge thanks to Mary, her crew at her office, all the election officials that participate in that process. We are so fortunate that we don’t have to, I won’t say we don’t have to worry about election integrity, but I feel like we are fortunate to have the guidance that allows us to rest easy when it comes to that election integrity which becomes a bigger and bigger issue all the time.”

McNamee thanked Feagler and the volunteers for her hard work during the election he also noted it takes a crew to have a successful election. McNamee congratulated the candidates.

“A big thank you to all of those who put themselves in the public’s scrutiny by signing up for and run for some of those positions. The people who do what they can to get the vote out and get everybody involved,” McNamee said. “It is an encompassing process and I think that it continues to work.”

Burkart also thanked the election staff, election judges and emergency services who worked hard on the election. Walsh seconded both the chairman and the vice chair’s thoughts of gratitude.

Moving on to departmental reports, the commission heard the clerk of court report from Brandi Correa, clerk of district court. 

Correa reported on the e-filing software the county is using for court documents. 

“There’s still a lot of bugs that have not been worked out even though this program started two years ago,” Correa said. “I spend most of my days, trying to, I wouldn’t say fight with supreme court, but struggling. I’m seeking their help because it’s their program and the two programs aren’t talking to each other.”

Correa stated she will continue to try to work with the supreme court for troubleshooting the e-filing system. The commission offered to assist the clerk in working through the program. Correa noted the earnings report was lower because of the lack of e-filing fee collected by the county.

“Technology is such a great thing when it works. It’s puzzling to me,” McNamee said. “I had the same thought that commissioner Burkart did regarding, is there anything we can do to help. The frustration for you and obviously other clerks of court around the state doesn’t seem fair. It’s continuing to add to your position, make your position more difficult.”

The commission moved to accept the clerk’s report including the earnings report. 

Moving on to the grant writer’s report, Hannah Fullmer spoke to the commission about classes and webinars she had attended. Fullmer also noted she had been researching grants and encouraging project heads to utilize the grants. Fullmer explained she was working on the library’s Transforming Communities grant which provides community engagement and accessibility resources to small and rural libraries to better serve people with disabilities. Fullmer also notes she was networking with the grant writer at Eastern Wyoming College. 

A motion was made to accept Fullmer’s grant writer’s report by Walsh which was then seconded by Burkart. The motion to accept the report passed and the commission moved onto the road and bridge report. 

“Obviously, we are still dry. We got a little bit of moisture. That’s gone,” the road and bridge crew began. “We do have guys back in the blades. Realistically, what we are doing right now is just going out and taking care of the worst of the roads if we’ve got blow outs and holes and all kinds of stuff like that. So, we have been hauling in some clay and some water and getting some holes filling in to keep everybody even through harvest and that kind of stuff.”

The department noted culverts had been installed and the crew had been staying busy. 

“I did look into your flashing sign down there (the corner of the Lingle/Veteran road) and they are $1,800 a piece so it’s just one of those things if we really had to, we could but they are expensive,” the department said. 

The department explained they are ready for winter road conditions. 

“We are ready for snowballs. We got good moisture last week. The guys got out and got a sand truck ready to go but it does look like the forecast is going to keep us out of the moisture until about February or so,” the department explained.

The department also advised the commission of some bridge work which is needed.

“The bridge that’s on the south end of the Lingle/Veteran Highway goes across the canal is going to need replaced. There was a WYDOT (Wyoming Department of Transportation) meeting out there, for me, as the new superintendent, which was interesting because that was a lot of people,” the department superintendent explained.

The project is slated for the year 2029 and it will not require funds from the county and during the WYDOT meeting, different options for routing traffic in the location were mentioned. 

The department explained a box culvert would be installed for the canal and they explained multiple benefits to using box culverts including less maintenance for the department. They also explained the design of the culvert would not affect water flow in the canal. 

“I was kind of saddened to hear that Buck Klemola is going to retire from his position with the Wyoming Highway Department,” McNamee said. “He’s been a long-time employee and a great adversary for Goshen County.”

McNamee asked the department to open a discussion on the traffic on the Lingle/Veteran Highway. 

“I just want to go on the record saying there is great concern from our standpoint with the amount of traffic that’s out there on that road, not the local traffic. It’s traffic that’s coming some of the trucks that are hauling sand and different things that are using that road, we want the people of Goshen County to know we are aware of that situation and that we will continue to do what we can to monitor that,” McNamee said. 

Traffic complaints on the highway can be reported to the sheriff’s office according to both the department and the commission. 

“If anybody has some complaints, a lot of that falls to law enforcement unless, of course, the roads are breaking up or something like that which is what we are trying to prevent, they should contact the sheriff’s office,” the department said. 

It was also noted a solar energy company was interested in building wind turbine near the Goshen/Platte County line and a meeting would be scheduled to include the commissioners. 

The commission approved the road and bridge report where Walsh motioned to accept the report and Burkart seconded the motion. 

Mary Feagler, clerk/treasurer gave her report to the commission, noting the earnings report for the month of October was $15,739.

“We are very glad yesterday (election day) has come and gone,” Feagler explained. “Looks like we get to do a recount on the entire county thanks to the school board race and we also get to recount Niobrara County school board race that is in our county.”

“Yesterday went very well and I really appreciate all of the people in the community that stepped up and helped us, the support that my office gets and people who thank us and tell us that they believe in election integrity in Wyoming,” Feagler said. 

Feagler said the recount would take some time. 

“It will take quite a while. We had 6,314 people vote and the only ones we won’t have to run through the machines are the 30 from Iowa Center,” Feagler explained. “Apparently, you have to win by 1% of the votes which we do not have between the number five person and the number six person on the school board.”

A motion was made by Walsh to accept the clerk’s report including the warrant report and earnings report which was seconded by Burkart. The motion carried. 

Under the emergency manager and fire warden report, Thom Bozeman spoke to the commission on a handful of grants which he had been award from Homeland Security on behalf of the county. 

Bozeman explained this month, there were election meetings held with the state he attended as well as other classes.  Bozeman explained there had been training done with Wyrulec. Bozeman explained he had become federally certified to apply for grants and he attended NARCAN training for the courthouse employees. He also explained he would be changing the formatting of the emergency operating plan, noting the response plan has changed at the federal level. Bozeman also explained the 2024 grant money should start coming in.

“We were awarded all but the transport vehicle for the sheriff’s office,” Bozeman explained of one grant. “We were awarded a total of $115,809 just in SHSP grants. We still haven’t gotten our EMPG grant. That’s a solicitation for $68,873 which it’s indicated we will get that grant. It just hasn’t come through the attorney general’s office for the state,” Bozeman said.

Bozeman said he also received notification the county had been awarded a private grant from One Oak Pipeline for $4,500. Bozeman also explained he had assisted the Veteran Volunteer Fire Department in applying for a grant, which was received, to update pagers and equipment. Bozeman stated there would also be an update made to tornado warning systems throughout the county. 

“In total, for the county itself, we’re going to be at $143,000 in grants just from this process that we will be receiving,” Bozeman said. “Each of those is $16,000 so we are still looking at $54,000 or $56,000 more still in grants coming for just this round.” 

Bozeman present a resolution to the commission to accept the grant funds which contained information on the grants themselves and the signatures needed to accept the funds.

“The first grant that we received, just for the public that wasn’t privy to the application process that we put in for, we got an award for election cameras. We’re putting permanent cameras in the clerk’s office, the vault for the election equipment as well as the rendezvous center where the voting takes place, where we have to set up days before so that election equipment’s under video surveillance during the time that it’s away from storage and the entire time that is here, which is required by code,” Bozeman explained. “[We were awarded] $34,360 for two of our outdoor warning systems. We are replacing everything but the top head so all the drivers, all the electronics, battery systems, charging systems. Everything is going to be changed out except for the head on there which they last about 30 years.”

Bozeman explained two radio consolettes were also obtained for EOC backup.

“As part of the county outdoor sirens, one of our encoders has failed. The one in the basement actually failed. I had to replace that one with a temporary one of the one of the small sirens on the small controllers, so we’ll get two new encoders for dispatch and one for here,” Bozeman said. “That’s part of that original grant request there.”

Bozeman also noted the state granted the sheriff’s department with two new ballistic vests for $23,151. Bozeman also explained the sheriff’s office wanted to take one of the extra offices and turn it into an interrogation room with equipment for $54,000 granted from the state.

“All of the grants we presented today are non-match grants. There is no money requirement from the county, so it is all basically 100% funded by those grants,” Bozeman said. 

Moving on the fire warden’s report, Bozeman said Goshen County was still dry and is currently listed as a D3 region for drought severity. 

“As of right now, 11 of the 23 counties are under a fire restriction of some sort, either stage one or stage two,” Bozeman said. “Nobody has reached a stage three, but they are all pretty much in stage one for the most part which is where we are at.”

It was agreed by the commission and Bozeman to reevaluate the Goshen County fire ban at a meeting-by-meeting basis. 

“I would recommend and certainly support leaving the fire ban in effect. I don’t know if either of the other two commissioners have any further comment on that or other ideas pertaining to that,” McNamee said. 

“I think it’s a meeting-to-meeting basis at this point. Review next meeting and see where we are at,” Burkart said.

McNamee briefly read the resolution 2024-14 for accepting funding from the Wyoming Office of Homeland Security. Burkart made a motion to accept the resolution which was seconded by Walsh and the resolution was then adopted by majority vote. A motion was also made to accept Bozeman’s reports which carried. 

During the maintenance supervisor report, Kevin Flock explained his department was still having issues with the downstairs control panel. 

“We have had more issues with the control panel downstairs. I had Long’s come and look at it when it started getting cold enough that our system was calling for the boilers to come on and neither of the boilers would fire,” Flock said. “For some reason, the relays in the control panel that control the boiler did not have any power to them. Currently, now, we have an extension cord with a transducer attached to it that’s operating our boilers and I just have to cycle a circuit breaker on and off to power them on or off depending on whether it’s cold and we need heat or not.”

Flock noted the detention center also experienced issues with the boiler in pod three which was repaired. 

Flock presented the commission with two options for the boiler issues in the basement of the courthouse. 

“Basically, option a would just be replacing the control panel with a digital system. Option b would also include there’s a big three-way value that is also nomadically controlled that basically switches between cooling and heating in our loop system. Option b would include replacing that as well along with a dump valve that’s on the cooling tower itself. It dumps the revivor water out of the cooling tower,” Flock explained.

Flock explained all of the county’s outdated equipment could be upgraded with option b and Flock mentioned the original budget for a new snowplow which had been carried over from previous years, had increased in expense. 

The commission agreed to obtain a snowplow after they determined which vehicle it would be used on from the fleet. The chairman noted they would have a decision in a timely manner. During the report, Flock mentioned the sump pump needed to be replaced and the commission agreed the work needed to be done. The commission approved the maintenance report after a brief discussion on funding and moved on to the amended item of the county assessor’s report.

Debbi Surratt quickly gave a brief on a few of the new pieces of legislation which will affect taxes. She expressed her office had been signing up “people like crazy” for the Long-term Home Buyers program. Walsh made a motion to accept the report which was then seconded by Burkart. The motion passed and the assessor’s report was accepted. 

With no old business to address, the commission moved on to new business where they discussed an IT committee request.

“Within Goshen County, we have an IT committee that oversees the IT infrastructure within the City of Torrington, the county, Fort Laramie and Lingle. We’ve seen a need over time to kind of reassess what our IT program looks like, the infrastructure looks like and what security challenges we have. We review two proposals from two local companies to kind of provide that oversite for us, see what policies we have in place what we don’t have in place, what our security risk might be, things like that,” Burkart explained. “I guess what I’m asking of the commissioners, the two proposals came in between the $25,000 to $30,000 range, we don’t have an exact number until they really dig in. That $25-30,000 would be shared between the county and the city. We share those expenses 50/50. We strongly feel this is something we need to do to protect our infrastructure.” 

A motion was made to have the IT committee move forward with the process of selecting a contract to review the IT infrastructure by Burkart which was then seconded by Walsh.

Chairman McNamee read a letter of resignation from John Ellis. Ellis resigned from hos position on the Goshen County Planning Commission. The commissioners wished Ellis well and thanked him for his time and service. 

The meeting then entered into an executive session and was adjourned thereafter. The next meeting for the Goshen County Commissioners will be Tuesday, November 19 at 9 a.m.