LINGLE – The Lingle Town Council meeting was called to order by mayor, Micah Foster, promptly at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, June 11. In attendance were council members Shelly Duncan, Jeff Jerome, Kathy Wilhelm and Tabitha Lambert. 

Following the Pledge of Allegiance, a motion was made to accept the evening’s agenda, after an adjustment was made to add Logan Dailey as the Homeland Security contact for the town. The motion then received a second and it carried by vote. Next, the council went on to approve the May 21, 2025, regular meeting minutes as presented and the bills for May. 

Moving on the public comment portion of the agenda, the council heard from a Lingle resident who expressed is gratitude for the assistance town maintenance supervisor, Logan Dailey provided during the storm and its clean-up. 

“During the rainstorm that we recently had, I just want to give out some kudos to our maintenance department, especially because he was jolly on the spot. We had a 10-inch river down 5th Street and we had logs floating down the street,” Steven Edwardson said. “I also wanted to give kudos to AJ Lambert and sons for coming down and clearly the drains of the debris and for helping me retrieve the logs.”

Edwardson noted everyone worked together to clean up the mess from the storm. 

Next the council moved on to departmental reports. In absence of Lingle Police Chief Endra Andrews and town attorney, Anna Barnes, the council moved on to Dailey’s maintenance report. 

“I have a little bit of a list of all that, in advance but yes, the storm is obviously at the forefront,” Dailey began. “The straight-line winds took out a lot of trees and we have been cleaning them up non-stop. We had no power outages, no water, no sewer issues so far. Everything has been working well. Obviously, our storm sewer system did not keep up so we had rivers everywhere. But all in all, it could have been so much worse and we did all right.”

Dailey noted there were some building damages to some areas around town.

“We did sustain some damage to the roof of the bathrooms at the park,” Dailey added. “I just got a complaint last week about them because the water valve had been partially shut off and so the toilets wouldn’t flush and people were going in and just going on top of the existing piles. It was rather disgusting. Finally, someone told me about it so we went over and sanitized the bejesus out of that. We got all that cleaned up and then the storm happened and now the roof had holes in it.” 

Dailey spoke with Ritch Reyes, clerk/treasurer, regarding an insurance claim. 

“We’re going to have Bob’s Roofing come out and take a look at it because, I think, he said our deductible is $5,000,” Dailey noted. “We’ll need to take a look at it and see what the actual amount of damage is. I have no idea.”

“We tried to patch up a little bit of what we could and then the ceilings cracked also and it knocked a couple things down. So, we were trying to figure out what we’re going to need to do to repair those ceilings because there’s not really an access into there. That’ll be a little bit of work in progress but just so you guys are aware,” Dailey explained. “We had a lot of trees that came down on secondary powerlines. Fortunately, none of the primary power lines were hit and gone but we did have a really large tree come down. We had to get the line back up but nobody lost power. We only had to get power on the one house for like maybe an hour or an hour and a half and then we had it back up and running.”

Fallen trees are an issue, Dailey reported. 

“We’re still picking up trees, obviously. They’re all over the place. As soon as we get the trees all picked up then we’re going to start street sweeping because, obviously, there’s leaves everywhere. That’ll be an ongoing issue but we got that taken care of,” Dailey explained. 

Dailey also provided an update on the Lingle pool. 

“We got the filters fully installed. They’re full of sand and gravel now as they’re supposed to be. The pool is currently filling up so I’m planning to go in tonight and hopefully start the filters up because I want to get it done,” Dailey explained. “That should be done relatively soon. Going back to the street sweeper, we got all the parts in for it and [a] huge thank you to AJ Lambert for coming and helping us install that thing. It took all four of us to get that conveyor belt in there and it was quite the experience. So, the street sweeper finally has the new parts that it needs and is all put back together. We took it for a quick test run and it actually picks up stuff now. That’s a huge move forward. The street sweeper is good.”

Dailey also cleared up some misinformation. 

“Going back a little bit, there were some complaints at the cemetery that the grass was not mowed before Memorial Day,” Dailey explained. “That was not true. It was mowed but then we had five days of rain so it filled up and grew very tall. We have since mowed it. Now, it’s going to take a lot more work because that ditch on the north side of it flooded the whole cemetery. It killed some grass and it made a mess of everything up there. We’ve got how we did not lose any trees up there is beyond me. All the trees survived.” 

Dailey noted there were a few branches to pick up and the road will need to be redone. Dailey noted the ditches couldn’t keep up with the amount of rainfall Lingle had during Monday’s storm. 

“That’s the ditch – actually backed up really bad over right by Ingram’s house. That was an experience. I went up on the ditch bank to try to clear some of that out and the ditch started going one way and I started going one way. So, I backed out of there and it was just enough weight from the backhoe that it broke open and it started running through again. There was just – it did that for probably a good two hours and it was right level with the ditch walls,” Dailey continued. 

“All of the alleys on the north side were going to be refinishing because the one by my house, the one by your house, it’s collapsed. All of them are completely just washed out and that’s anytime we have a heavier in like that it does that,” Dailey said, addressing council member Duncan.

Duncan noted the culvert near her house was broken.

“I think some big truck had been coming through a couple of times and said maybe even the trash and they run over it and crushed it in,” Duncan explained. “So, you might want to check that.”

Not realizing a pipe ran under the ground there, Dailey noted he would check into the broken culvert near Duncan’s residence. Dailey further explained he would be working in the alleys as too. 

“I mean that’s what you get when you get a river following through them, so we will definitely get to work on the alley also,” Dailey said. 

Dailey also noted he was finishing up with the electric grade study and he explained he will advise the council when the study is complete. 

Dailey also explained the addition to the evening’s agenda. 

“Then, the last thing – just to explain the appointment that I’ve requested before. So, per Wyoming statute 19-13-108 each political subdivision of the State of Wyoming is required to have a Homeland Security Coordinator. They answer to the emergency manager for the county. What is is the Homeland Security Coordinator goes through and develops plans to prepare, mitigate and respond to disasters, natural emergencies, things like that within the community,” Dailey explained. “I talked to Micah [Foster] a little bit about this and I asked that he appoint me just because with the water and wastewater, I already have to put together emergency response plans.”

“I already have all the information complied and I’m typically the one people call when this stuff starts to go sideways anyways. I just ask that I be appointed so that we can be compliant with statue and then build that relationship with Tom Bozeman at the country so that we can start getting that stuff and making a smoother workflow for him especially,” Dailey said. 

For the Lingle Volunteer Fire Department, Lambert noted there had been five ambulance calls and one fire call. Dailey reported the department was applying for a grant to purchase new bunker gear. 

Reyes noted he would be attending convention next month. 

The council next approved the third reading of ordinance #374, section ten, a contract with TDS. The council also approved the second reading of ordinance #375, for the annual appropriations for the town. 

Dailey noted Monday, June 9 starts the cleanup for the town. 

“So, if people put their large items and things like that in the alley – tree branches, we will pick them and then TDS will drop off a roll off so we can start filling those up and get some stuff hauled out,” Dailey said. “That will run June 9 through the 16th.”

The council also moved on to approve Dailey’s appointment as the Homeland Security contact. With nothing further to discuss, the meeting was then adjourned. 

“As of Monday, we are continuing to remove tree branches from the streets and clean out storm sewer drains. However, thanks to the help of several people, we have been able to expedite the process and are nearing the end of the clean-up. We sincerely appreciate Haven on the Rock and the townspeople’s efforts in helping us with the clean-up throughout town,” Dailey explained in an email Monday, June 9. “The storm damaged a few structures throughout the town, but workers are repairing the damage. We appreciate the swift action of local businesses and agencies in providing a quick response to homeowners in the area.”

“We are excited to be finished within the next week or so and moving forward. The storm chose the right time, as this week we began our Community Clean-Up event and are now in full swing, hauling debris and waste in cooperation with TDS. We have two roll-offs for large furniture items and two smaller roll-offs for metal. For questions or more information, please call Logan or Jeremy at (307) 534-6509,” Dailey concluded.